Rekha is the most popular Bollywood Actresses'. She is noted for her versatility and the ability to sustain her status. Rekha is considered to be the Eternal Diva of Bollywood. Throughout the 1970s she has been considered as a Sex Symbol, known for her beauty, acting talent and dancing skills. Her most well known trademarks are her seductive tone and beautiful eyes. Being very friendly, Rekha has helped many actresses.
Background
Ethnicity:
She is the daughter of renowned Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan and the Telugu actress Pushpavalli.
Rekha was born on 10 October 1954 in Chennai, India, she is the daughter of renowned Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan and the Telugu actress Pushpavalli. She has seven sisters and one brother. One of her sisters is Dr. Kamala Selvaraj, while another one, Radha, lives in San Francisco with a son named Naveed, who is being readied to act in Bollywood movies.Her father enjoyed considerable success as an actor and Rekha was to follow in his footsteps. Rekha's parents were not married, and her father did not acknowledge his paternity during her childhood. Rekha has had various unsuccessful relationships with fellow Bollywood stars including Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Mehra and in 1990 she married Delhi-based businessman Mukesh Aggarwal, who committed suicide in 1991. Rekha currently lives along with her secretary Farzana in her Bandra home in Mumbai.
Career
Rekha appeared as a child actor in the Telugu film “Rangula Ratnam” (1966). Rekha made her debut as heroine in the successful Kannada film Goadalli CID 999 with Dr. Rajkumar in 1969. In that same year, she starred in her first Hindi film, Anjana Safar (later retitled Do Shikari). She had two films released in 1970: the Telugu film “Amma Kosam” and the Hindi film “Sawan Bhadon”, which was considered her acting debut in Bollywood. She had to learn Hindi language, as her naturally spoken language was Tamil. Inability to speak Hindi, a dusky complexion as well as her weight did not exactly add to her assets in a predominantly fair-skinned, Hindi-speaking North-Indian film industry. She decided to take matters seriously, took Yoga, shed those extra pounds, learned Hindi and dancing, and thus was born a new and much improved Rekha, “Sawan Bhadon” became a hit, and Rekha — a star overnight. She subsequently got several offers but nothing of substance. Her roles were mostly used to be just of a glamour girl. She appeared in several commercially successful films at the time, including “Kahani Kismat Ki”, “Raampur Ka Lakshman” and “Pran Jaaye Par Vachan Na Jaaye”, yet she was not as regarded for her acting abilities. Her first performance-oriented role came in 1976 when she played an ambitious woman in “Do Anjaane”, co-starring Amitabh Bachchan. The film became a hit as well as a critical success, and she was widely noticed for her performance.
Throughout the 1980s, regularly worked in parallel cinema, a term that refers to the new wave, realistic cinema in India. Her venture into this particular genre started off with “Umrao Jaan”, and was followed by other 1981 such releases as Shyam Benegal's award-winning drama, “Kalyug”; “Ramesh Talwar's Baseraa”, which saw her playing a woman who marries her sister's husband, after the latter loses her mental balance; and the commercially successful “Ek Hi Bhool”, opposite Jeetendra, with Rekha playing the role of a betrayed wife who leaves her husband. Her performances in these films were highly praised by critics. Other notable arthouse films during the 1980s included “Jeevan Dhaara”, “Utsav” and “Ijaazat”.
Apart from parallel cinema, Rekha took on other increasingly serious, even adventurous roles; she was among the early actresses to play lead roles in heroine-oriented films, delivering films such as “Khubsoorat”, “Khoon Bhari Maang” and “Mujhe Insaaf Chahiye”. She won Filmfare trophies for her roles in” Khubsoorat” (1980) and “Khoon Bhari Maang” (1988). In 2000-2007 she has appeared in relatively few movies, usually as a mother or a widow rather than a glamour queen. In 2001, she starred as Ramdulari in Rajkumar Santoshi's Lajja, along with an ensemble cast that included Manisha Koirala, Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor. In 2003, she played Hrithik Roshan's mother in Rakesh Roshan's Koi... Mil Gaya In her later years she has taken up character roles and appeared as a mother, even a grandmother in” Krrish” (2006) during 2006 and “Krrish 2” (2012).
Umrao Jaan
